Note 55 — AQUATIC EXERCISES
Reading edition
Or loose rope.
[56] The fore-stay, or large rope from the lower mast head to the stem head, to prevent the mast from springing when the vessel is sending deep, or fallen into the hollow between two waves, after pitching.
[57] That is, let go the bowline which holds the sail to this, now weather shroud. It was held there till now, that the wind might act upon it with greater power to turn the vessel, from the time her head was about half-way round. The expression is derived from its being necessary, in larger vessels of a similar rig, to ease the rope gradually as the sail draws it. From the time the jib-sheet is let fly, till the foresail is let draw, the vessel is said to be in stays.